Ryan Garcia has given up on the idea of fighting Jorge Linares due to the former three-division world champion unable to travel to the U.S to face him.
Garcia now wants to fight 35-year-old Abner Mares, who is even older than Linares, but much smaller and not an active fighter. The last time featherweight Mares fought was in 2018 in a losing effort against Leo Santa Cruz.
The unbeaten lightweight contender Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) maintains that he wouldn’t receive credit from fans if he beat the 34-year-old Linares. The fans would say he was old or had a weak chin.
Ryan Garcia hasn’t been getting credit from hardcore boxing fans for the marginal opposition that his promoters have been putting him in with. So it won’t be anything new for Ryan to fail to receive credit if he were to face Linares and beat him.
With that said, Linares would a tremendous step up in class for Ryan Garcia from the inferior fighters that he’s been facing. We just saw Linares effortlessly defeat Carlos Morales, a guy that Ryan struggled to beat in 2018.
Ryan beat Morales by a very close 10 round majority decision in a fight that some fans saw as a robbery. Linares destroyed Morales in four rounds last February.
Ryan Garcia: I won’t receive credit
“I’m definitely not gonna get any type of credit for any victory I’m gonna get if it’s not Linares,” said Ryan Garcia to The Ak & Barak Show.
“And even if it was Linares, let’s be honest, people have already got those excuses lined up. They’re gonna Linares was old and they’re gonna say that he has no chin when I catch him,” said Ryan Garcia.
It’s troubling to see Ryan Garcia dismissing opponents based on his fortune-telling about whether the boxing public will give him credit or not. If Ryan wants to have fans pour praise over his head, then he needs to tell his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions to match him against Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, or Vasiliy Lomachenko.
If none of those fights or available, then Ryan should look to fight guys at 140 or 130. Ryan Garcia doesn’t have an issue with Abner Mares moving up two divisions from featherweight to lightweight to fight him. Ryan should be willing to fight 130 or 140-pound fighters.
Fans would like to see Ryan Garcia face Miguel Berchelt, Oscar Valdez, Shakur Stevenson, Jose Ramirez, Josh Taylor, or Regis Prograis. At least one of those fighters would give the green light to fight Ryan Garcia. I can’t see Prograis turning down a fight with Ryan.
Abner Mares is a little man – Ryan Garcia
“Hopefully I can get Abner Mares in the ring, but he might price himself out, which is OK, but he called me out,” Ryan Garcia said. “I wasn’t worried about him. He’s a little guy, little dude, little man.
“So I definitely would not want to hurt him. I don’t wanna hurt nobody, but I will hurt him. He’s a very little, little man. But he called me out, he really went for it. So I’m, like, ‘OK, if you really want that work, I’m gonna knock you out.
“I’m not gonna get credit, but I don’t care. I’m just gonna knock you out.’ If we could get that fight going, but probably not.”
It’s kind of sad to picture Ryan fighting Mares right now because that guy hasn’t fought in a long, long time, and he’s coming off of a loss. Moreover, Mares has been dealing with eye problems, and it would be a bad idea for him to face Ryan.
